Tigris

The Tigris (Old Persian: Tigr, Aramaic Assyrian: Deqlath, Arabic: دجلة, Dijla, Turkish: Dicle; Hebrew: ?????; biblical Hiddekel) is the eastern member of the pair of great rivers that define Mesopotamia, along with the Euphrates, which flows from the mountains of Anatolia through Iraq. (Indeed, the name "Mesopotamia" is a Greek translation from the Old Persian Miyanrudan, which means "the Land between the Rivers". Bethnahrin is the Assyrian word for the area.). The name Tigris comes from Old Persian and means "the fast one".It might also be argued to come from Kurdish too.In Kurdish "Tig" means arrow. This means that the river is quick and fast like an arrow. In Kurdish "Derzi" means needle meaning that the river is long and straight like a needle (Derzi-Terzi-Tigzi-Tigris). Another name for this watercourse, used from the time of the Persian Empire, is Arvand, which has the same meaning. Today, the name Arvand refers to the lower part of the Tigris (ie, Arvand/Shatt al-Arab) in Persian.

See also

• Assyria
• Cradle of Humanity (Cradle of Civilization)
• Euphrates
• Ilisu Dam Campaign campaign against a planned dam on Tigris in Turkey
• List of places in Iraq
• Tigris-Euphrates alluvial salt marsh